Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-04-27
THE GREAT BUDDHA.
A Gigantic Mass of Gold that is wor-
shipped in Japan.

The temple of Dai-Doutsou (the great
Buddha) seems a temple built for fun-an
enormous joke TO amuse the faithful.
This g Great Buddha" has only a head
and shoulders, at least ninety-five feet high :;
he seems to be rising from the depths of
the earth, with his neck stretching up like
some one making painful effort to strug-
gle out of the ground. He alone fills all
his temple, and his curling hair touches its
roof.
One reaches him. just as all the gods are
reached, by series of stairways, portcos
and courts. From the gate of the sanctu-
AIRY one cannot very well explain to oneself
at the first glance what is that hillock of
gold, that shapeless mass in front (the
shoulders of Buddha). 1t is only after
ward, when you look up very high, that
you see far above you the colossal gi!ded
face, the huge-fXed eyes gazing down upon
you from the hight of ninety feet with
idiotic placiditv
| find myself making this pilgrimage at
the same time as good-natured Nippon
family of country people, who have come
to the Holy City for the first time and the
good folks, especially the ladies, cannot get
over the idea of seeing so big god and
there are cries of "Ah - and "Oh p'-ex-
Carnations of surprise-little screams and
little laughs. No, really this Buddha is
just too funny, with his stork-neck and his
stupid air-funny as any of those snow
men which urchins make at the corners of
the streets-funny as some enormous carl
cature made to order by little children,
And there the little country family are all
laughing right under the god nose-laugh-
ing till the tears roll do Tn their cheeks,
and the other visitors, and even the guard
ian BONES themselves, also laugh to see
than, lot1nb frha,, oil ct -
see how | feel about it, and | have to laugh
too-can't possibly help it. What a coun-
try this Japan, where everything is oddity
and contrast Who could ever imagine
that this frivolous little temple, with its
reverences and its eternal laugh, could have
lived through centuries locked UP in such
ferocious mystery, and have given birth to
those thousands of other temples, with
their monsters and their hobgoblins?
By the payment of two cents one is priv
ileged to make the round of the great
Buddha-one ascends by series of sloping
plank galleries, placed at very steep angle,
on which you can pass behind the head of
the colossus, little above the nape of the
neck. | advance upon it, still accompanied
by the voyaging family the slopipg way is
slippery, old, broken through here and
there, worm -eaten-the ladies very nearly
fall. put out my hand to help them, and
then we become good friends right away
Behind the enormous head, in dark nook,
an old bonze is squatting down-tor one
cent he shows US suit of armor and war
mask which once belonged to the great
Taiko- -Sama-and then he throws open for
our benefit sundry very ancient idol closets
in which animal-headed divinities are con-
served and various relics of weird aspect.
There we do not laugh any more.
In the court of this temple is the most
monstrous of all the bells of Kioto-at least
seven or perhaps eight yards around. 1t is
rung by means of an enormous beam tipped
with iron-a sort of batteriug-ram suspend
ed horizontally with ropes
For two cents extra one has the right to
experiment with it. l harness myself to
the pulling straps circle is formed around
me and children run up. Even two or
three young girls come behind me TO take
hold, bothering me great deal, pulling
the wrong way half the time, bursting into
fits of laughter. The united strength of the
three is almost equal to the power of three
good kittens.
Meanwhile the battering ram begins to
yield; gradually it begins to swing. Boom,
boom A sound awful, eavernous, and
prolonged into mighty orchestral vibra-
tions, which must be heard through the
whole of the sacred city.
Then the audience is sa happv-delrious
with ioy-ean' get enough of it; every one
laughs; every one is IL ecstacy.-Eeae Or
leqns Tf2ss-D Democrats 7Tdnslation from the
French.